This invention relates generally to systems for transporting small objects, and more particularly relates to pneumatic transport systems.
Presently in the fruit industry, most specifically in the apple industry, fruit is traditionally handpicked. The pickers carefully place the fruit in apple bags which are worn on the shoulders of the pickers, extending downward over the chest and abdomen to the groin. The pickers then gently release the fruit into large bins for later transport to a packing or processing plant. This technique provides for the “on-tree” selection by the picker of the appropriate fruit (apples) for picking utilizing the visually discernible criteria of color size and quality. Good pickers remove the fruit from the tree while keeping the stem intact on the fruit so as to maintain the integrity of the following years fruiting bud on the tree. On occasion, the picking operations must contend with the clipping of overly stiff or long stems; the gentle placement of the fruit into the picking bag to prevent bruising; and the transfer and delivery of the fruit to a larger size container better adapted for truck transport. Fruit located on high limbs may require that the picker climb a ladder or stand on a scaffold to reach the fruit. The fruit bins are usually placed in the row between tree lines, and the bins are spaced so that they can be filled by fruit transferred from the picker's bag within the shortest walking distance. The bins are then picked up by a fruit trailer pulled by a tractor and taken to a common holding site awaiting forklift placement onto a flatbed truck.
This fruit picking process results in about 30% of the picker's time actually picking fruit, with the remaining 70% of the time gently placing the fruit into bags or bins after having clipped the stems when required, moving and climbing up and down ladders, carrying fruit from one place to another, then walking to and carefully releasing the picker's bag load of apples into the collecting bin taking special care not to cause a blemish or bruise on the fruit by rough handling. The picker's bag load may weigh 40 pounds or more leading to fatigue of the picker and a reduction in efficiency.
Due to the seasonal nature of the fruit harvest, fruit pickers are frequently found amongst migrant worker groups often from countries outside the United States. As a result of stringent U.S. immigration policies, a sufficient numbers of pickers may not be available to pick the fruit at harvest time. Due to the slowness of the fruit handpicking process, large numbers of pickers are required when the fruit reaches the proper point of ripeness. Since individual productivity is low when fruit is handpicked, wages remain low for the individual picker. This in turn results in the propagation of a population of below average wage earners.
It is an objective of this invention to improve the productivity of the individual picker while maintaining the advantages of the hand picking process, namely: selectivity of fruit to be picked, gentleness to prevent bruising at all stages of movement and packing and stem trimming when needed is desirable.
To accomplish this objective, a system involving specially modified and augmented pneumatic tubes is presented.